The data centre firm responsible for Amazon.com’s hosting in Ireland has bought its second data centre in west Dublin for €28.2m and is in the process of building a third 120,000 sq ft data centre on a site in north Dublin, siliconrepublic.com has learned.
In May last year, siliconrepublic.com revealed that Digital Realty Trust, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company, acquired the former 360 Networks data centre in Clonshaugh for an undisclosed sum from Magnet Networks owner Ken Petersen’s Hibernia Atlantic.
The data centre’s anchor tenant for the Clonshaugh facility is internet retail giant Amazon.com, which will use the facility as part of a 10-year leasing agreement.
It emerged yesterday that Digital Realty Trust has acquired a second Dublin facility. The 120,000 sq ft facility has an address at 9 Blanchardstown Corporate Park and was once the property of a data backup company called Data Trust.
It is understood that Digital Realty Trust secured a loan for €28.2m to acquire the Blanchardstown facility just before Christmas last.
Digital Realty Trust, which was established in 2004, describes itself as a company that owns, acquires, repositions and manages technology-related real estate. It owns 49 properties in 17 US and four European metropolitan areas that are considered to be key technology hubs, including Dublin.
The company claims on average 93.9pc occupancy rates for its data centres by clients such as Verizon, Fidelity, Yahoo!, eBay, Microsoft, AT&T and Fidelity.
The company on Tuesday reported profits of US$31.4m on revenues of US$281.9m for 2006.
It said that over the course of the year it acquired 17 properties totalling US$552.5m. The company boasts total assets of US$2.2bn on its balance sheet.
Digital Realty Trust’s CEO Michael Foust said that increased regulatory and legislative requirements – such as Sarbanes-Oxley – were driving requirements for data recovery, business continuity, record retention and disaster recovery services.
“We are well positioned to meet this demand through our redevelopment programme, acquisition pipeline and leasing momentum.”
Foust explained that the company has expanded its presence in Europe with the addition of a property in Paris, a second operating data centre facility in Dublin and the development of a new 120,000 data centre at the site of its first Dublin property in Clonshaugh.
“The volume of leasing activity and strong growth in rents are the results of our proven ability to acquire and deliver highly improved data centre space for national and international corporate users that depend on our reliable, cost-effective solutions for their data centre requirements,” Foust said.
By John Kennedy
